God said, "Wait."

And after a while I noticed a very fair woman pass: she looked this way
and that, and drew down a branch, and it seemed she kissed the fruit upon
it softly, and went on her way, and her dress made no rustle as she passed
over the grass. And when I saw her no more, from among the stems came
another woman fair as she had been, in a delicate tinted robe; she looked
this way and that. When she saw no one there she drew down the fruit, and
when she had looked over it to find a place, she put her mouth to it
softly, and went away. And I saw other and other women come, making no
noise, and they glided away also over the grass.

And I said to God, "What are they doing?"

God said, "They are poisoning."

And I said, "How?"

God said, "They touch it with their lips, when they have made a tiny wound
in it with their fore-teeth they set in it that which is under their
tongues: they close it with their lip--that no man may see the place, and
pass on."

I said to God, "Why do they do it?"

God said, "That another may not eat."

I said to God, "But if they poison all then none dare eat; what do they
gain?"